CALL FOR PAPERS
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, San Francisco, 17th - 21st April 2006
Paper session: Activism, autonomy, and alternatives: Putting theory into practice and practice into theory
The growing influence of global corporations and international capital over national government, and the emerging threats of environmental crisis (such as Peak Oil, climate change), appears to go hand-in-hand with a significant disenfranchisement and apathy amongst the electorate in western democracies. When we look beyond formal political arenas, however, we can see that different spaces of activism are being invented and used by individuals and collectives (for example, social centres, direct action camps, community organising).
Yet how do practical attempts to 'do' 'autonomous projects', 'sustainable development', 'green living', or 'anti-capitalism' connect with the more abstract ideas that seek to define, and perhaps even motivate, them? How are utopian visions put into practice and how are the contradictions of daily living overcome? Through critically reflecting on the experiences of political projects that seek to offer alternative possibilities to the capitalist organisation of society, and the conceptual ideas that underpin them, this session seeks to create a constructive dialogue between theory and practice which can help to better understand and implement alternative politics in the contemporary world.
Thus just some of the questions we are asking include: How self-legislating must you be to be 'autonomous'? How green is a 'real' environmentalist? How anti-capital are anti-capitalists? What is 'good enough'? How should we consider the relations and importance of outcome vis-à-vis process? Theory and practice? Attempt and success? Multiplicity and integrity? Overall, how can we understand conceptual ideas such as 'autonomy' and 'green living' as relations rather than
ultimate goals, acknowledging their unobtainability while retaining their power as utopian stimuli?
We would be interested in papers which critically reflect upon activist practices, experiments and spaces of resistance.
If you would be interested in participating in this paper session, please send a short abstract (no longer than 250 words) to the organisers by 13th October 2006.
Organisers:
Jon Anderson, School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, UK ([log in to unmask])
Jenny Pickerill, Department of Geography, Leicester University, UK ([log in to unmask])
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Dr Jenny Pickerill
Lecturer in Human Geography
Department of Geography
University of Leicester
University Road
Leicester
LE1 7RH
UK
work: +44 (0)116 252 3836
fax: +44 (0)116 252 3854
email: [log in to unmask]
web: www.jennypickerill.info
Anti-war activism project: www.antiwarresearch.info
Autonomous Geographies project: www.autonomousgeographies.org
Lammas low impact settlement project: www.lammas.org.uk
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